Grooming Crepe Myrtles

Crepe Myrtles are valuable in the landscape because they love hot, sunny locations, and bloom all summer long. In fall and winter, we also value them for their all color, peeling bark, and the grace of their natural form. It is a tough and year-round beautiful plant. Unless it's topped.

Topping Disfigures Crepe Myrtles

The origin of the practice of chopping off the tops of Crepe Myrtles is unknown. Some people believe that it is required to promote flowering; others see their neighbors doing it and feel the need to follow suit; some prune because the plant is too large for the space provided, or think that it will make the tree grow taller. Repeated topping creates lumpy swellings at the point of pruning. The resulting winter silhouette is hideous. During our coolest months, the satin-smooth bark and sinewy trunks of a graceful Crepe Myrtle should make a statement in the winter landscape. But amputated, knuckled, and disfigured branches mar the tree's outline, just when it should be an asset.

Superlush New Growth Gets Attacked

Topping is the worst possible thing you can do. Lopping the main trunks triggers masses of soft growth when the weather warms. This blocks air and sun from getting to the foliage, making it easy for Powdery Mildew to attack it. The stems are very succulent, attracting Spider Mites and Aphids.

Crepe Myrtle Grooming Steps

Crepe Myrtles do not require topping to promote bloom. The flowers are produced on new growth, and Crepe Myrtles produce new growth throughout the warm growing season. Look at those that are growing unattended in the median strips. They bloom profusely without human intervention.

They do benefit from a light grooming in late winter/early spring, before the plant leafs out in spring, but after the risk of a hard freeze. In Houston this is after St. Patrick's Day. By following our recommendations, you'll encourage a clean, strong, naturally shaped skeleton that will add to the beauty of your landscape year-round. By enhancing the natural habit of the tree, you'll guide your Crepe Myrtle into a form that is both handsome and easy to maintain. For the tree forms, remove

• Only dominant branches that are growing too close together
• Broken or dying branches
• Branches growing vertically up into the center of the tree
• Weak wood (i.e., growth smaller than a pencil)
• Branches that cross, or rub against each other
• Limbs hanging so low that they hit you in the face
• Root suckers, water spouts, and new growth from the ground to the first main branches to retain the desirable trunk structure.

For the shrub forms, remove with restraint weak, twiggy or crossing growth. Don't be too quick to excise lower branches.

For both forms, always remove a branch flush where it attaches to a main trunk.

Ungroomed Crepe Myrtle	Groomed Crepe Myrtle

To Remove or Not Remove the Seed Heads?

You may feel the need to improve the appearance by removing the seed heads before growth begins. This is not necessary. Birds, such as finches, feed on the seed heads when food is either scarce or not available. Allow nature to take its course, the seedheads will drop, the plant will bloom, and the natural grace of the plant will be retained. If you feel otherwise, then remove only those seed heads within reach, cutting them just above a lateral bud.

Extending the Bloom Season

During the summer you can extend the Crepe Myrtle bloom season by pruning flowers immediately after they fade.

Resources

Our thanks to the Cooperative Extensions of Texas A & M and Clemson University for providing this information.